Chapter 8

Sparring was a common occurrence in the military camp. Whenever he and I sparred, it usually drew a crowd, because he was highly competitive, and I refused to lose. Initially, I would feel sad because he showed me absolutely no mercy, but that feeling would quickly be overshadowed by his smug showing off. In our subsequent matches, my only thought was how to beat him.

After his initial lack of preparation, he started going toe-to-toe with me. After a dozen exchanges, we had each other locked in a grapple, unable to separate for a moment.

“Let go.” I looked into his eyes and instantly darted my gaze away.

Too close. We were inches apart. A bit closer and our noses would touch.

“Then do you admit defeat?” The light of competitiveness danced in his eyes.

“Heh.”

I broke the hold, pushed us apart, and straightened my rumpled sleeves.

Fighting back and forth like this, winning and losing, Ji Wenmu would have to be possessed by a ghost to ever fall in love with me.

I exhaled and patted his shoulder. “Want to go get a drink?”

This must have triggered a rather unpleasant memory for him. He pulled his collar tight, his eyes darting away. “A lone man and a lone woman, that’s not very appropriate, is it?”

“I treat you like a younger brother, what’s inappropriate about it?” Recalling something, I leaned close to his ear and lowered my voice. “How do you know it’s just the two of us? What about the ones you can’t see?”

Ji Wenmu was a year younger than me. When I first entered the manor, he was a little troublemaker who knew some martial arts, and ordinary people couldn’t handle him.

But a child is still a child. He was terrified of ghosts, scared to death of them. He had even been scared to tears in the middle of the night.

Thinking of those old memories, I couldn’t help but laugh. He remembered them too, and his face turned as dark as the night itself.

He clicked his tongue fiercely, grabbed me, and pulled me outside. “Drink! We’ll drink! Bring one on, this master will drink him under the table! Bring two, and I’ll drink them both down!”

Having spent a long time in the military camp, my alcohol tolerance was naturally high. This time, I kept an eye on my intake and didn’t drink too much, but by the time the tavern closed, Ji Wenmu was completely wasted, slumped on the table slurring nonsense.

I nudged him. “Can you still walk?”

He jerked upright, raised his cup to me, and slurred, “We are good brothers!”

Then he collapsed onto the table again.

My confession really gave him some kind of trauma, making him emphasize this even now.

“Are you that terrified of me liking you?”

He mumbled, “Brothers, brothers…”

I watched his drunken state. Half his face was flushed red, and his half-tied hair was plastered messily across his face, tickling him uncomfortably. He pawed at it a few times but couldn’t clear it away.

I reached out, pinched the strands of hair stuck to his face one by one, and moved them aside, staring at his profile in a daze.

He had completely shed his childish features. The lines of his jaw were sharp and smooth. He was no longer the boy who followed behind me, asking me to walk with him at night, or the boy who puffed out his chest and said, “This young master will cover you.”

He felt completely at ease with me. He felt at ease letting me complete missions and face danger.

I sighed. Sometimes having martial arts skills that were too high was a pain. He was far too confident in me.

“Ji Wenmu, if I were in danger, would you save me immediately?”

He was completely dead to the world and naturally didn’t give me any reaction. I laughed at myself mockingly.

Dawdling and hesitating—where was the decisiveness I had when slaying enemies on the battlefield?

I escorted him back to the Ji Manor and stayed there for the night. Coincidentally, an imperial decree arrived from the palace: Huang Yue had tasked Uncle Ji with arranging the security for next month’s Autumn Hunt.

Ji Wenmu was assigned to patrol near the main camp, while I was responsible for the officials and their families. We would only bump into each other during our free time after duty, which made me feel much more comfortable, not having to see him every day.

The Autumn Hunt happened every year, and every year a large number of soldiers were deployed for protection. Although accidents had happened in the past, they were mostly false alarms. Before I enlisted, I had never participated in the Autumn Hunt. After fighting foreign threats for eight years, this was my first time at this hunting ground, so I found it somewhat novel.

When I was off duty, I wandered around and shot two rabbits. I was carrying them back when a palace maid happened to approach me. She spoke respectfully, “General Liu, Her Majesty invites you to go over.”